Sand County Almanac Book Report

ENVS*2120

Friday October 4, 2013

Assignment 1: Book Report

“All conservation of wilderness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish” (Aldo Leopold 1949). If we were to consider that there could be justification for the exploitation of the environment and wilderness, this quote by Aldo Leopold would explain it perfectly; however, there is no justification for the greediness and the lack of ethics we face with respect to the natural environment. ‘A Sand County Almanac’ explains the importance of conservation, just as other environmental books, textbooks, and journals attempt to accomplish today. This is; however, one of the documents that successfully focuses on the human relationship with nature, and the moral principles that human beings, money hungry corporations and governments have with respect to the wilderness, or in other words, property. ‘A Sand County Almanac’ implies that expanding ones thoughts about environmental conservation may be accomplished by being receptive to the realization that harmony and a bond between society and nature may be the most important factors in achieving conservation, and reaching the need and want to conserve, as much as possible. 

The primary message of Leopold’s ‘A Sand County Almanac’ is the moral and ethical concerns with society’s relation to environmental stewardship. Leopold sets the standard for how humans should interrelate with the land with his powerful statements; he suggests that, “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect” (Aldo Leopold 1949). Leopold’s key point, which is made very clear within this statement, is that humans must realize and accept that they do not control nature, rather, but they are a part of nature. 

Aldo Leopold says that, “There is as yet no ethic dealing with man's...